Club Crave Property Sees New Activity

By Bill Dries

A nightclub developer known for projects in Hollywood and the recent Fly Lounge at FedExForum has plans for the old Club Crave property on the northeast corner of Fourth and Beale streets.

The old Club Crave at 380 Beale St., shown when it was Plush Club, may come back to life as a nightspot called The Palace.

(Daily News File/Lance Murphey)

Steven Adelman reportedly has plans to lease the property and develop a nightclub Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. says would be called The Palace.

Club Crave has been closed since December 2012 following a court order declaring it a public nuisance because of violence in and around the nightspot. At the time, Wharton also said the city would seek demolition of the property, which is outside the formal boundaries of the city’s Beale Street entertainment district. But the circa-1975 building that was originally the Muhammad Ali Towne Two Cinema is still standing.

The owner of the building, according to records in the Shelby County Assessor’s office is Miller Memphis Inc. with the mailing address for tax notices going to the address on Beale. The building was leased to club owners over the years by George Miller, the former head of the Beale Street Development Corp., the nonprofit corporation set up at the establishment of the plans in the mid-1970s for the city to redevelop Beale Street between Second and Fourth streets.

Miller, who was ousted as BSDC director and at times claimed he remained as director of the nonprofit, died this week.

The Palace name has come up before in past Adelman projects. It was the name of the Hollywood concert hall and nightclub that Adelman and partner John Lyons opened in 2002 as Avalon Hollywood with an Avalon Singapore opening in 2011.

And Beale Street’s storied Palace Theater stood where the Jerry Lee Lewis nightclub now operates in a building that did not survive urban renewal demolition in the district that preceded the redevelopment of the area.